For Release Thursday, June 4, 2009
Citiwire.net
There’s more to the arts than their intrinsic value. The universe of drama, concerts, painting and sculpture also spells economic activity. And there’s something we’ve been calling a “creative economy” — the idea that beyond the intrinsic worth of arts, the culture and creativity they generate, there’s clear dollar and cents benefit for a community. And it’s not just tourism, inspiring learning among youth, drawing talented people to a city, even helping accelerate innovation in other industries.
Check the last months’ news, however, and you find the arts are struggling for economic oxygen. Every field from architecture to graphic design seems hard hit in this hard recession.
So what’s to be done — should we “forget” focus on the creative economy for the moment, or alternatively, forge strategies to support arts, develop creative enterprises more than ever?
The negative arts front news is hard to miss — something of a perfect economic storm for the entire “creative economy” on every front from architecture to graphic design to symphony performances. Fiscal challenges at the city and state levels are leading to drastic cuts in funding for public arts agencies. Losses in endowment investments are having the same impact on larger cultural institutions — especially those that have used their endowments to fund operating expenses. At the same time, foundations, corporate funders and large individual donors, the mainstay of support for many cultural institutions, have felt compelled to reduce a significant share of their normal grant making.
And as if that weren’t bad enough, the “market” for their product – audiences willing to pay for cultural exhibits and performances — has declined significantly.
The impacts have been painful. There are daily announcements of layoffs at museums and performing arts organizations. Smaller organizations and venues are struggling to survive, while some of the larger ones have changed what they are producing – less innovative products, with fewer artists/performers involved.
The news for individual artists, writers, actors, musicians and designers is not much brighter. A recent study by the National Endowment for the Arts found that unemployment rates among artists is twice that of professional workers, with 129,000 unemployed in the fourth quarter of 2008– an increase of roughly 50,000, or 63 percent, from one year earlier. The study also found that the unemployment rate for artists is rising faster than that of other occupational groups. Recently the New York Times’ Artsbeat section asked about the effect of the economy on individual artists. Some 175 responses came in — rather grim ones, ranging from “a life of starvation is recession proof” to stories of loss of sales, cancelled tours, and layoffs from artists’ primary jobs.
The story’s a bit more mixed in commercial businesses where creative content is at the heart of what a firm produces. Some industries, particularly those in design, have seen job decreases that are higher than the average. For example, the Boston Globe recently reported that most architecture firms in that city had laid off 50 percent of their staff.
On the other hand, some of the more entertainment-related industries in the creative sector have not fared as poorly in the current recession. According to the Department of Labor, the motion picture and sound recording industry was ranked fifth of all industries in job performance between February and March of 2009.
As “green” jobs become the new target for economic development officials across the United States, should we turn our backs on the creative industries?
I demur. With cities’ decline in housing prices and reduction in real estate pressures, artists looking for inexpensive real estate may actually turn out to be part of the solution. Already there are stories of artists moving into some of our hardest-hit cities seeking very low cost housing.
Recessions are also a time when entrepreneurship is at its strongest levels. Many creative workers hold multiple jobs and for many their creative work — often a secondary jobs — is their passion Entrepreneurial activity among those with creative talents may lead to many new, innovative enterprises.
Creative freelancing may also be an important source of cash to supplement stressed family incomes, particularly in our rural communities. The creative sector is one in which a large number of individuals make their living through piecing together a number of freelance activities. Often, it is the income from arts and cultural activities that supplements a family’s income, rather than being the main source of that income. As individuals lose their jobs, this supplemental income becomes that much more important to household income.
Finally, past crisis provides strong evidence that when times are bad, people turn to art and entertainment. Maybe that is what accounts for the strong performance of the movie industry during this current recession. The arts aren’t just a luxury; they’re vital not just to our spirits, but as we’ve learned increasingly in recent years, our livelihoods too.
Beth Siegel’s e-mail address is bsiegel@mtauburnassociates.com.
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